Розділ: Політика
New Era of US Campaigning in Time of Coronavirus
The congressional district Lindsey Boylan is running to represent is eerily quiet. New York’s 10th Congressional District takes in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes one of the nation’s makeshift hospitals converted to handle the growing coronavirus crisis: the Javits Center. “You don’t see the lights of the city that you would usually see. People really try to be respectful of the shelter-in-place rule, aside from grocery stores,” says Boylan, a former deputy secretary of economic development for Governor Andrew Cuomo who is running as a primary challenger to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler. “It’s just a really quiet, quiet city.” Boylan is one of thousands of candidates up and down the ballot across the nation who have had to adapt their campaigns to the new realities of self-isolation and shelter-in-place orders. Online replaces door-to-doorCandidates who usually at this time in an election year would be knocking on doors and holding face-to-face town halls have migrated online to Instagram Lives and Zoom meetings. Campaigning is always difficult but this dramatic shift is occurring early in a crucial election season that will determine if Democrats retain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives while Republicans are looking to hold on to control of the U.S. Senate. The makeup of the nation’s legislative body will be determined by these candidates’ success or failure. “There’s an old saying in electoral politics – there are those that walk and those that lose. You want to get out there and do the door knocking,” says Todd Belt, director of the political management program at the George Washington University School of Political Management. The Empire State building is seen in the distance from an empty street, April 2, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.First-time candidatesThe challenge is even greater for first-time candidates like Boylan, who need to increase their name recognition with voters and take on incumbent politicians. While presidential campaigns and high-profile congressional races have media recognition and large staffs, the majority of candidates are operating on much tighter margins. “A campaign is like a small business that ends on election day,” says Amanda Litman, executive director and co-founder of Run for Something, an organization that helps first-time political candidates. The organization has compiled resources to help those first-time candidates figure out how to move an entire operation including volunteers, events, and information-sharing completely online. “We’re encouraging people to try and replicate the relationships they have with voters, or at least replicate the intimacy. You can’t recreate the way that knocking on someone’s door and going into their home really feels. However, we can try and build on that trust and at least try and build some of that trust online,” Litman says. “We’ve had to pivot entirely to digital at this point,” Boylan says of her campaign. “But we’re doing things every day to accommodate that. So I did my first Instagram Live last night with the only other mom of young children who’s running for Congress in New York State.” Online office hours Boylan says hundreds of people joined in virtually and that she would begin replicating that experience with online office hours throughout the campaign, answering the flood of questions about federal and state assistance for those impacted by the coronavirus. “Technology has been a tremendous equalizer in our campaign because I can immediately hear about the issues that are really problematic for people in the community,” Boylan said. But Belt said interactions on social media do not fully replace the in-person interactions candidates often do in voter town halls and in visits with civic groups as they seek endorsements. “It’s just not the same thing as being able to talk to people and listen to their concerns and to show your empathy and to explain in detail what your policy proposals are,” he said. Congressional races also rely on more traditional forms of paid media – the candidate advertisements that run on local radio and television stations. Those ads cost money at a time when campaign fundraising is a tough task for candidates who risk appearing crass during a national emergency “It’s going to be more expensive,” Belt said of the cost of paid advertisements. “Now you have less money coming in. And because the amount of money you have to pay for an advertisement is pegged to the rating that they’re getting, the ratings are going to be up because everybody’s home. It’s going to make it even more expensive at a time of declining contributions.” Influence of local media has changed In past election years, candidates have always been able to turn to interviews with local media – from TV appearances talking about local issues to interviews with newspaper editorial boards considering endorsements. Matt Gorman, the former communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, notes even this element of campaigning has been changed by the coronavirus. “It’s extremely rare where not only is national media dominated by a story but local media is as well,” said Gorman. He said he would advise candidates, “Don’t swim against the stream – talk about coronavirus. That’s what people want to talk about, that’s what the press wants to cover but a smart candidate uses that to branch out to other pertinent issues.” A pedestrian walks by The Family Barbershop, closed due to a Gov. Gretchen Whitmer executive order, in Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., April 2, 2020.Medical school background a plusSolomon Rajput is a progressive challenger to Rep. Debbie Dingell, in the Michigan 12th Congressional District, an area identified as one of the national hotspots for the coronavirus. He says his medical school background figured heavily in a recent online town hall with voters. “Having that health care background, a background in science and recognizing the lack of science in our federal administration and how that has gotten us to the terrible point we’re at,” Rajput said of the concerns conveyed to him by voters. Rajput had to reassess his campaign strategy of building an army of committed young volunteers who could go out into the community to talk about his concerns about climate change. Now he says his campaign is making the most of the time voters are stuck inside, recruiting for online internships. Discussions start with coronavirusBoylan says that in her campaign the consequences of the coronavirus have started discussions with voters about access to testing, hospital overcrowding and the issues created for families now that schools are closed and some students do not have access to computers and other resources. “Our campaign really had focused on the fact that our district and our communities are the most unequal in the country,” says Boylan. “It’s not as if these issues have changed. It’s simply that this public health crisis that we’re living through really has exacerbated a lot of these problems.” Boylan says one of her signature campaign issues is receiving more attention lately due to the crisis: access to affordable mental health care. She can still bring those concerns – and the plans she has to address them – to voters. Like all the candidates on the ballot in this unusual election year, Boylan is finding new ways to campaign in an historically bad situation. Later in the day, she’s booked for a podcast interview on mental health in the time of the coronavirus.
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By Polityk | 04/03/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Democrats Delay National Convention
The U.S. Democratic Party postponed its national presidential nominating convention from July to August on Thursday because of the uncertainty created by the ravaging coronavirus pandemic. The quadrennial event, where Democratic activists are likely to nominate former Vice President Joe Biden to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election, had been scheduled for mid-July in Milwaukee, in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, but now will start Aug. 17. The party, in announcing the delay, said that even then the size and shape of the event is uncertain, with officials saying they will rely on the advice of medical and emergency responders about the coronavirus closer to the time of the event to protect the thousands of people who normally would attend the convention. Every four years, the Democratic and Republican national presidential nominating conventions are a showcase of American democracy in action, even though for years the eventual outcome of the parties’ presidential contests have been known for weeks ahead of the actual conventions. The conclaves have, however, served as rallies for the party faithful, with thousands of flag-waving political activists ready to cheer four days of speeches denouncing their opponents. Joe Solmonese, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee, said, “In our current climate of uncertainty, we believe the smartest approach is to take additional time to monitor how this situation unfolds so we can best position our party for a safe and successful convention.” He said that because “the scope and scale of the pandemic and its impact remain unknown, we will continue to monitor the situation.” Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, speaks before a Democratic presidential primary debate, Nov. 20, 2019, in Atlanta.Tom Perez, the Democrats’ national chair, said, “Ultimately, the health and safety of our convention attendees and the people of Milwaukee is our top priority. And we will continue to be in contact with local, state, and federal health officials as we monitor this fluid situation.” He said Democrats are “ready to defeat Donald Trump, the American people are ready to elect a Democratic president, and I have absolute confidence that our team is ready to deliver a successful convention for our nominee.” In keeping an eye on the state of the pandemic closer to August, Democrats said they could adjust the convention’s format, limit the crowd size and change the schedule. With the new convention date for the Democrats, the two national parties will be staging back-to-back conventions in two successive weeks, which usually does not occur. Republicans are slated to acclaim Trump’s nomination for a second four-year term in the White House at their convention in Charlotte, in the Atlantic coastal state of North Carolina, starting Aug. 24.
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By Polityk | 04/03/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Pelosi to Form Select Committee to Oversee US Coronavirus Relief
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she would form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2.3 trillion that Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic.In a conference call with reporters, the California Democrat also said she believed the administration of Republican President Donald Trump was “more inclined to be supportive” than Senate Republican leaders of her push for infrastructure spending as part of a fourth major bill in response to the coronavirus crisis.Congressional Democrats and the Trump administration have been clashing over how to implement the massive coronavirus rescue bill, the largest financial relief bill in U.S. history. When he signed the bill, Trump questioned whether he had to adhere to restrictions on his powers included in it.Pelosi said lawmakers must ensure aid already approved gets to those who need it most, and a committee was needed to ensure funds “are spent wisely and effectively.”The top House Republican, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, raised several objections to the idea of a select committee, including that it could not be created without a vote and Congress is out until April 20. “It raises questions to me, what the speaker is trying to do with that,” McCarthy told reporters on a conference call.McCarthy said there is already oversight from congressional committees and the new coronavirus laws.Review favoredPelosi, whose party has enough votes in the House to create a select committee if it wants, said she also favored an “after action review” later to examine the handling of the pandemic, but the select committee will be for the “here and now.” It will have subpoena power, she said. “We want to make sure there are not exploiters out there. … Where there is money, there is also frequently mischief.”Pelosi said she spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday about tax matters, but “they know that I want to go forward” on infrastructure spending.”Whatever communication we need to move forward, that will be happening, whether I talk to the president or not,” said Pelosi, who has a strained relationship with Trump.McCarthy said he was open to more infrastructure spending but wanted to focus on implementing coronavirus-related legislation already passed before embarking on more.Democrats have outlined a $760 billion, five-year infrastructure bill that would fund road repairs, water system improvements, broadband and other projects. They also want $10 billion for community health centers.
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By Polityk | 04/03/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Sees His Handling of COVID-19 as Path to Reelection
With the coronavirus death toll mounting in the U.S., the presidential election in November 2020 is now shaping up potentially as a referendum on how President Donald Trump is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The president has not shied away from being political during this time of national crisis, and his campaign is seeking to capitalize on the image of the commander in chief holding forth during White House coronavirus briefings. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
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By Polityk | 04/02/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Coronavirus Virtually Transforms US Political Campaigns
Social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 is changing the tactics for political campaigns, especially for candidates running for president of the United States. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines the changing strategies and endangered traditions.
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By Polityk | 04/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Allies Warn Against Feud With Swing State Governor
President Donald Trump’s allies are trying to contain a politically risky election year fight with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as he struggles to balance presidential politics with a global pandemic in one of the nation’s most important swing states.Both sides have tried to de-escalate the feud this week, although Trump’s supporters in particular sought to downplay tensions that ratcheted up over the weekend when the Republican president unleashed a social media broadside against Whitmer, a Democrat who had been critical of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.Trump has clashed with other Democratic governors as well, but he saved his most aggressive insults for the first-term female governor, who is considered a leading vice presidential prospect for his opponent.”Everyone should be shedding the partisanship and coming together,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in an interview when asked about Trump’s attacks, suggesting that some of his criticism had been mischaracterized.
“I am rooting for Gov. Whitmer,” said McDaniel, who lives in Michigan. “I think she’s done good things. … I just didn’t like her trying to lay every problem at the president’s feet.” The backpedaling underscores the nature of the dispute, which comes seven months before Election Day in a state that could make or break Trump’s reelection bid. Michigan is an elite presidential battleground that has historically celebrated bipartisanship and pragmatism while rewarding candidates who rally behind key institutions in crisis. Four years ago, Trump eked out a win by about 11,000 votes out of more than 4.5 million cast in the state.Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and McDaniel’s uncle, lost his home state of Michigan in 2012 after opposing federal efforts to rescue the automotive industry. And Trump, by unleashing a personal attack against the state’s governor in the midst of a pandemic, has sparked new fears that he, too, may be hurting himself and his party on the eve of the next election.
Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell, a Republican, said he raised concerns about Trump’s political attack with the administration directly.”I did relay to the administration that I didn’t think it was helpful and why play that game,” Mitchell said in an interview. “These are times when the American people look for leaders. Leaders don’t whine. Leaders don’t blame.”He said he raised similar concerns with Whitmer’s office, suggesting that her criticisms about the federal response have not necessarily been accurate.”This is not the time where we need more drama in this country,” Mitchell said.While political fights are common for Trump, Whitmer’s rise in Democratic politics has been defined by her decision usually not to attack the president.Whitmer, a 48-year-old longtime state legislator and attorney, ran for governor as a pragmatic liberal, emphasizing her bipartisan work while pledging to fix Michigan’s crumbling roads. She rarely talked about Trump before the election or after.But as a frequent guest on national media in recent weeks, Whitmer has criticized the federal response while pleading for ventilators, personal protection equipment and test kits as Michigan has emerged as one of the hardest-hit states. Republicans were especially upset after she implied during a Friday radio interview that the Trump administration was intentionally withholding medical supplies from Michigan.In a weekend tweet storm as the coronavirus death toll surged, Trump called her “Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer,” charging that she was “way over her head” and “doesn’t have a clue” about how to handle the health crisis. Two days earlier, Trump said publicly that he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the White House’s pandemic response, not to call “the woman in Michigan.”
Trump has since deleted the tweet. And in a press briefing on Tuesday, he said he had a productive conversation with Whitmer earlier in the day.The governor, too, has backed away from the feud this week as the state grapples with the escalating crisis. Michigan reported more than 7,600 cases of coronavirus and 259 deaths as of Tuesday. In a statement, Whitmer declared that her “No. 1 priority is protecting Michigan families from the spread of COVID-19.””I don’t care about partisan fights or getting nicknames from the president,” she said.
Yet Trump’s initial fiery response — and the scramble to contain it — is nothing if not consistent. The former New York real estate magnate has showed he cannot help but respond with force when criticized. As first lady Melania Trump noted almost exactly four years ago, “When you attack him he will punch back 10 times harder.”In this case, however, allies quietly note that he did not consider the likely political ramifications in a state he badly needs to win in November.”Anyone with half a brain can see that attacking an incredibly popular governor who’s showing real leadership during a crisis is not a net plus,” said John Anzalone, whose firm handles polling for Whitmer and former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.Biden has stood up for Whitmer repeatedly in recent days. On Tuesday evening, Biden’s senior adviser Anita Dunn reinforced Biden’s support for the governor, who she said “is fighting hard for her state and setting an example for leaders across the nation.” “Joe Biden prays that Donald Trump can find the strength to live up to her example,” Dunn said.
Meanwhile, it was difficult to find a Michigan Republican willing to defend Trump’s behavior.
A spokeswoman for Republican state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey had this to say when asked about Trump’s declaration that Pence should not call Whitmer: “The Senate majority leader believes everyone is coping with an unusual amount of stress during this time.”The clash was particularly sensitive because of the evolving nature of gender politics in the Trump era. Suburban women, including many Republicans, have increasingly fled Trump’s GOP, enabling major Democratic victories across the country in 2018 and 2019.His decision to single out Whitmer came the same week he attacked another high-profile Michigan woman, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, whom he jabbed for not working fast enough to help the government produce ventilators.”Always a mess with Mary B,” Trump tweeted. Trump’s team hopes to repair the relationship with suburban women before Election Day, at least somewhat, in a state that matters more than most. Democrats will not make it easy.”It’s sad but not shocking that President Trump has attacked Gov. Whitmer for doing her job. He clearly has a problem with strong, competent women,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of the group EMILY’S List, which helps elect women who support abortion rights.Meanwhile, Republican Bill Schuette, whom Whitmer defeated in 2018, praised Trump’s leadership managing the pandemic but also said “we need to lay down the politics” in response to questions about the president’s divisive comments and her performance during the crisis.”This is not a time for partisanship,” Schuette said. “This is a time of working together in an open, honest fashion. That’s what people expect and deserve, particularly in a time of crisis.”
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By Polityk | 04/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden: Democrats’ National Convention May Have to Be Postponed
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic candidate in November’s national presidential election, says the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the country is likely to force significant alterations or postponement of the party’s national nominating convention scheduled for July. The Democratic and Republican national conventions are a quadrennial showpiece of American democracy, but Biden told MSNBC late Tuesday that it is “hard to envision” the Democratic convention set for mid-July in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, occurring as scheduled. The Republican convention is planned for August in Charlotte in the Atlantic coastal state of North Carolina. “We should listen to the scientists” on whether it would be safe come mid-July to have several thousand Democrats and hundreds of media representatives crammed in close proximity to each other at the Fiserv Forum, a basketball arena, Biden told the news channel.Under current restrictions, such a gathering would not be possible. Coronavirus Lockdowns Extended as Governments Hope for ProgressItaly, Nigeria, Britain among areas where people can expect restrictions on movement to last weeks, if not longer Republican President Donald Trump, Biden’s would-be opponent as he seeks a second term in the White House, has extended social distancing in the U.S. through the end of April as the country’s coronavirus death toll mounts by the hundreds every day. Government and health officials have told Americans to keep from gathering in crowds of more than 10 people, with police in some communities already arresting violators. Dozens of U.S. governors across the country have imposed stay-at-home orders, with about 80% of the country’s 327 million people now under such directives. Biden said the Democratic convention was scheduled to avoid conflict with the summer Olympics in Tokyo, which had been set to begin July 24. But now that the games have been postponed till 2021, the Democratic Party could push ahead the start of its convention, if that would make sense related to coronavirus concerns three months from now. Tokyo Olympics Organizers Announce New DateRescheduled Summer Games to Run July 23, 2021, to August 8, 2021″There is more time now,” Biden said. “We ought to be able to do what we were able to do in the middle of the Civil War all the way through to World War II — have Democratic and Republican conventions and primaries and elections, and still have public safety. We’re able to do both.” Looking ahead to the national election set for Nov. 3, Biden said that state election officials need to prepare now for more absentee ballots that are mailed in and should consider a virtual election, with secure remote voting. “They should be doing that now, planning on it,” he added. “This is about making sure that we’re able to conduct our democracy while we’re dealing with a pandemic. We can do both. It may mean a difference in the way we do it. It may mean that social distancing doesn’t get it done. It may mean that you have a circumstance where you have drive-in voting, literally.”
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By Polityk | 04/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Outlines Plan for Venezuela Transition, Sanctions Relief
The Trump administration is prepared to lift crippling sanctions on Venezuela in support of a new proposal to form a transitional government requiring both Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó to step aside in favor of a five-person governing council, U.S. officials said. The one-page “Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela” was presented Tuesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It echoes a proposal made over the weekend by Guaidó that shows how growing concerns about the coronavirus, which threatens to overwhelm the South American country’s already collapsed health system and economy, are reviving U.S. attempts to pull the military apart from Maduro. “This framework can provide a path that ends the suffering and opens the path to a brighter future for Venezuela,” said Pompeo in Washington. Under the plan, both Maduro and Guaidó, who some 60 countries recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader, would step aside and cede power to a five-member council of state to govern the country until presidential and parliamentary elections can be held within 6-12 months. The military high command — the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela and a key plank of support for Maduro — would remain in place for the duration of the transitional government. Four of the members would be appointed by the opposition-controlled National Assembly that Guaidó heads. To draw buy-in from the ruling socialist party, a two-thirds majority would be required. The fifth member, who would serve as interim president until elections are held, would be named by the other council members. Neither Maduro nor Guaidó would be on the council but Pompeo said Guaidó would be free to run for president when elections are held. “The hope is that this setup promotes the selection of people who are very broadly respected and known as people who can work with the other side,” U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told the AP in a preview of the plan. “Even people in the regime look at this and realize Maduro has to go, but the rest of us are being treated well and fairly.” The plan also outlines for the first time U.S. requirements for lifting sanctions against Maduro officials and the oil industry — the source of nearly all of Venezuela’s foreign income. While those accused of grave human rights abuses and drug trafficking are not eligible for sanctions relief, individuals who are blacklisted because of the position they hold inside the Maduro government — such as members of the supreme court, electoral council and the rubber-stamp constitutional assembly — would benefit. But for sanctions to vanish, Abrams said the council would need to be functioning and all foreign military forces — from Cuba or Russia — would need to leave the country. “What we’re hoping is that this really intensifies a discussion inside the army, Chavismo, the ruling socialist party and the regime on how to get out of the terrible crisis they’re in,” Abrams said. Maduro’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza all but rejected the call for dialogue, saying Maduro “never will betray the vote of confidence that the people gave him.” For months, the U.S. has relied on economic and diplomatic pressure to try and break the military’s support for Maduro and last week U.S. prosecutors indicted Maduro and key stakeholders — including his defense minister and head of the supreme court — on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Still, any power-sharing arrangement is unlikely to win Maduro’s support unless the thorny issue of his future is addressed and he’s protected from the U.S. justice system, said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “It’s a little hard to see how this is going to be convincing to the major players in the government,” said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “They seem to think the military is going to step in, but that seems extremely unlikely.” It also would require the support of Cuba, China or Russia, all of whom are key backers of Maduro. The standoff between Maduro and Guaidó has only grown more tense in recent days. Maduro’s chief prosecutor on Tuesday summoned Guaidó to testify after one of the individuals indicted on drug charges said he signed a contract with the opposition leader and his American “advisers” to purchase U.S. assault rifles for a planned coup. Guaidó’s team said he has never met the retired general, who subsequently surrendered to officials and was taken to the U.S. from his home in Colombia where he had lived since 2018 despite having been previously sanctioned by the U.S. for drug smuggling. A senior administration official said Monday that the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Maduro the terms of his exit even in the wake of the indictments. But recalling the history of Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama, who was removed in a U.S. invasion after being charged himself for drug trafficking, he cautioned that his options for a deal were running out. “History shows that those who do not cooperate with U.S. law enforcement agencies do not fare well,” the official said in a call with journalists on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. policy. Guaidó’s called on Saturday for the creation of a “national emergency government” was accompanied with the promise of $1.2 billion in loans from international financial institutions to fight the pandemic. The spread of the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm Venezuela’s already collapsed health system while depriving its crippled economy of oil revenue on which it almost exclusively depends for hard currency. Last September, Guaidó proposed a similar transitional government in talks with Maduro officials sponsored by Norway, which never gained traction. But with the already bankrupt country running out of gasoline and seeing bouts of looting amid the coronavirus pandemic, calls have been growing for both the opposition and Maduro to set aside their bitter differences to head off a nightmare scenario.
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By Polityk | 04/01/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
For Trump, November Election Is Always in Mind
With his job on the line, next November’s national election is never far from the mind of President Donald Trump, even as he confronts the country’s growing death toll from the coronavirus pandemic. “I can’t imagine any president doing more than I have,” Trump boasted during a nearly hour-long interview Monday on one of his favorite shows, “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News channel. The Republican Trump assailed his likely Democratic presidential opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, saying, “If Sleepy Joe was president, he wouldn’t know what was going on” about the coronavirus. A staple of U.S. political campaigns — large rallies with cheering, flag-waving supporters — is nothing but a memory, with Trump extending social distancing guidelines in the U.S. through April and calling for bans on gatherings of all but small groups of people. Both Trump and Biden have abandoned such rallies in favor of taking potshots at each other over the airwaves.FILE – Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the 11th Democratic candidates debate of the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, held in CNN’s Washington studios, in Washington, March 15, 2020.Biden has appeared on nationally televised town halls and news talk shows, mostly from a studio in his home in the eastern state of Delaware. He appears to have an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates to July’s planned national Democratic presidential nominating convention over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, although Sanders has shown no intention of dropping out of the contest and conceding the nomination to Biden. Trump on Sunday extended the social distancing guidelines through April after last week saying he wanted the country open again by Easter Sunday, April 12. Appearing on TV shortly before Trump’s announcement, Biden said the U.S. leader should “stop thinking out loud and start thinking deeply” about how his administration deals with the coronavirus. “Look, the coronavirus is not the president’s fault,” Biden said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show. “But the slow response, the failure to get going right away, the inability to do the things that needed to be done quickly — they are things that can’t continue.” “He should start listening to the scientists before he speaks. He should listen to the health experts,” Biden said, which is what Trump later said he did in extending the social distancing guidelines past Monday when they were set to expire. Poll numbersWith general approval of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis since his initial reticence to publicly accept that it would be a problem in the U.S., Americans have shown a new liking for Trump. “My poll numbers have been the highest ever,” Trump declared in the Fox interview, even though they still register on the negative side of the ledger. A person rows a boat flying a “Trump 2020” banner and the United States flag during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, March 30, 2020.In the latest compilation of poll results, the Realclearpolitics.com site says 47.3% of American voters approve of Trump’s performance in office, with 49.3% reacting unfavorably. Similarly, polling shows Biden slightly edging Trump about seven months ahead of the November balloting, with the outcome generally considered too close to call. Three polls in the last week show Biden ahead of Trump by 2, 3 and 9 percentage points. In the 2016 contest, Trump lost the national popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 2%, but won the presidency where it matters in the U.S., in the electoral college where the national outcome is decided by the vote winner in each of the 50 states. In the Fox interview, Trump said he thinks New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would be a tougher Democratic presidential opponent than Biden. Cuomo has been widely acclaimed for his handling of the coronavirus crisis in his state, the hardest hit in the U.S., and his daily televised press conferences. “One of the reasons he’s been successful is the federal government” assistance to New York, Trump said, while saying, “I think Andrew would be better” as a presidential candidate than Biden. Pelosi blames TrumpWhile attacking Biden, Trump assailed another Democratic political foe, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She claimed Sunday that Trump’s actions have proved deadly and cost lives in the U.S., because of his failure to recognize the seriousness of the coronavirus threat in the early weeks of 2020 and laggard efforts to dispatch medical equipment across the country before ramping up in March. Pelosi told CNN that Trump’s “denial at the beginning was deadly” and that as he “fiddles, people are dying.” “She’s a sick puppy in my opinion,” Trump said. “Somehow there’s something wrong with the woman.”
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By Polityk | 03/31/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
AP FACT CHECK: Trump Gets a Reality Check on Coronavirus
For weeks, President Donald Trump carved out a trail of groundless assurances about the coronavirus pandemic as health officials, governors and local officials sounded alarm about what was coming — and already here. That sunlit trail now has hit a wall.On Sunday, Trump appeared to be bracing the country for a grim death toll as he accepted the advice of public-health experts and gave up on letting federal social-distance guidelines lapse Monday as initially intended. In doing so, he acknowledged what his officials had told him — that 100,000 people or many more could die from COVID-19 in the U.S. before it’s over. And he recognized it won’t be over for some time.A look at some of his statements over the past week as a reality check caught up with him:NATIONAL SHUTDOWNTRUMP: “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” — Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.TRUMP: “We have to open up our country, I’m sorry.” — conference call with governors Tuesday, audio of which was obtained by The Associated Press.THE FACTS: The public-health community, governors and many others knew when they heard Trump say this that a revival by Easter, April 12, was not going to happen. On Sunday, Trump extended the federal government’s restrictive distancing recommendations until April 30. That may not be enough, either.To be clear, the federal government did not close down the country and won’t be reopening it. Restrictions on public gatherings, workplaces, mobility, store operations, schools and more were ordered by states and communities, not Washington. The federal government has imposed border controls; otherwise its social-distancing actions are mostly recommendations, not mandates.On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health cautioned that the virus outbreak could ultimately kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans with possibly millions infected as it continues to surge across the nation. Trump shifted his tone and backed off trying to rush the country back to work and to normalcy in a matter of a few weeks.TRUMP: “I mean, we have never closed the country before, and we have had some pretty bad flus, and we have had some pretty bad viruses.” — Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.THE FACTS: He’s making a bad comparison.The new coronavirus is not the same as the annual flu because it’s a disease that hadn’t been seen before in humans. For that reason, human populations lack immunity to the virus. It can spread unchecked, except by measures such as social distancing.VIRUS TESTINGTRUMP: “Over an eight day span, the United States now does more testing than what South Korea (which has been a very successful tester) does over an eight week span. Great job!” — tweet Wednesday.THE FACTS: The comparison with South Korea isn’t very illuminating. The U.S. has more than six times the population of South Korea, about 330 million compared with about 50 million. Yet South Korea is testing about four times more people as a percentage of its population.The two countries are also at different stages in their outbreaks. Daily case counts are rapidly rising in the U.S., where the coronavirus took hold later on. In South Korea, the curve has been leveling off. The U.S. count is going up fast in part because the virus is spreading and in part because of a test shortage that lasted weeks, as well as a backlog in laboratories reporting results. In that time, Trump falsely asserted that anyone who wanted or needed to get the test could. South Korea’s coronavirus response has been marked by an emphasis on widespread testing that earned global praise. But even in that country the government is stressing social distancing measures because of worries the outbreak could pick up again. HOW DEADLY?TRUMP on the death rate from COVID-19: “I think it’s substantially below 1%, because the people don’t report.” — Fox News interview Thursday.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, Sunday, March 29, 2020, in Washington, as President Donald Trump listens.THE FACTS: No one knows the death rate. Fauci says it may end up being roughly 1%. If that turns out right, it would mean that the disease is 10 times deadlier than the average seasonal flu, with its death rate of about 0.1%. Fauci’s estimate includes people whose cases are not reported.TRAVEL RESTRICTIONSTRUMP: “In Canada we do have troops along the border.” — news briefing Thursday.THE FACTS: No, the U.S. has not sent troops to police the mutual closing of the Canada-U.S. border to nonessential, noncommercial traffic. The border is controlled on both sides by nonmilitary entry stations.”Canada and the United States have the longest unmilitarized border in the world and it is very much in both of our interests for it to remain that way,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.TRUMP: “We’re the ones that gave the great response, and we’re the ones that kept China out of here. … If I didn’t do that early call on China — and nobody wanted that to happen. Everybody thought it was just unnecessary to do it.” — news briefing Wednesday.TRUMP: “Everybody was against it. Almost everybody, I would say, was just absolutely against it. … I made a decision to close off to China that was weeks early. … And I must say, doctors — nobody wanted to make that decision at the time.” — Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.TRUMP: “I’ll tell you how prepared I was, I called for a ban.” — news briefing on March 19.THE FACTS: His decision was far from solo, nor was it made over opposition from health experts, as the White House coronavirus task force makes clear. His decision followed a consensus by his public health advisers that the restrictions should take place.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was coordinator of the task force at the time and announced the travel restrictions, said Trump made the decision in late January after accepting the “uniform recommendation of the career public health officials here at HHS.” While the World Health Organization did advise against the overuse of travel restrictions, Azar told reporters in February that his department’s career health officials had made a “considered recommendation, which I and the president adopted” in a bid to slow spread of the virus.FILE – An American Airlines aircraft is preparing to land at Reagan National airport near Washington, DC. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Most major airlines had already suspended flights to China prior to the announcement on Jan. 31, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak. Delta, American and United cited a sharp drop in demand for the flights, and an earlier State Department advisory told Americans not to travel to China because of the outbreak.TRUMP, on the early China travel restrictions: “And if we didn’t do that, thousands and thousands of people would have died.” — news briefing Wednesday.THE FACTS: The impact hasn’t been quantified. While Fauci has praised the travel restrictions on China for slowing the virus, it’s not known how big an impact they had or if “thousands and thousands” of lives were saved.There were plenty of gaps in containment.Trump’s order did not fully “close” the U.S. off to China, as he asserts. It temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Americans returning from China were allowed back after enhanced screening at select ports of entry and for 14 days afterward. But U.S. scientists say screenings can miss people who don’t yet show symptoms of COVID-19; while symptoms often appear within five days or six days of exposure, the incubation period is 14 days.A recent study from the journal Science found China’s internal crackdown modestly delayed the spread of the virus. It cast doubt that travel restrictions elsewhere will do much compared with other preventive measures, citing in part the likelihood that a large number of people exposed to the virus had already been traveling internationally without being detected.For weeks after the first U.S. case of the coronavirus was confirmed in January, government missteps caused a shortage of reliable laboratory tests for the coronavirus, leading to delays in diagnoses. ECONOMYTRUMP on the economic hit: “I don’t think its going to end up being such a rough patch.” — briefing Wednesday.THE FACTS: His optimism is a stretch.Even in a best case — the pandemic subsides relatively quickly and economic growth and jobs come back without a long lag — some damage is done. The $2.2 trillion federal rescue package, equal to half the size of the entire federal budget, means record debt on top of the record debt that existed before the crisis.The Capitol Hill building is pictured in Washington. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Why is too much debt bad? A report this month by the Congressional Budget Office says that over time, the growth in the government’s debt can dampen economic output and progressively reduce the income of U.S. households, among other “significant risks to the nation’s fiscal and economic outlook.”That said, the global markets consider this a good time for the U.S. government to borrow. With interest on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note at 0.75%, investors are offering to loan money to the federal government at a loss after accounting for inflation.Meantime the longest economic expansion in U.S. history is surely over. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says: “We may well be in a recession.”DRUG TREATMENTSTRUMP, on the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine: “I want to thank the FDA because they approved it immediately, based on the fact that it was already out for a different purpose. They approved it immediately.” — news briefing Friday.TRUMP: “Clinical trials in New York will begin … for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. … The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-Pak, I think as a combination, probably, is looking very, very good. And it’s going to be distributed. … And I think a lot of people are going to be — hopefully — they’re going to be very happy with the results.” — news briefing on March 23.THE FACTS: For days Trump inflated the prospects for a quick treatment or cure for COVID-19. This is one example. No drugs have been approved as a treatment, cure, preventive medicine or vaccine for the disease, and public health officials say not to expect anything imminently. Technically, doctors can already prescribe the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing. But Trump falsely suggested to reporters that the FDA had just cleared the drug specifically for the viral pandemic spreading in communities across the U.S. That would mean that the drug had met the FDA’s standards for safety and effectiveness.Although research studies are beginning on using hydroxychloroquine specifically to treat the coronavirus, scientists urge caution about whether the drugs will live up to Trump’s promises. Dr. Michelle Gong, a critical care chief at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center, told the Journal of the American Medical Association that it is imperative for doctors to do careful studies of drugs such as chloroquine to make sure they actually work, rather than just administering them to patients because they have nothing else to offer. Without that proof, “it is very easy for us to do more harm,” she said.So far there is very little data to go on, mostly anecdotal reports from some other countries. But test tube studies in laboratories suggest the drugs may interfere with the coronavirus being able to enter cells. U.S. cardiologists have been warned by colleagues in China to be alert for side effects in heart patients.In Arizona, an older couple experienced disastrous results when they took an additive used to clean fish tanks, chloroquine phosphate. The husband died and his wife was in critical condition. That prompted a major Phoenix health system to warn the public against self-medicating.Trump’s mention of a Z-Pak is a reference to azithromycin, an antibiotic. Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses, but people severely ill with viral pneumonia sometimes develop secondary bacterial infections. When there are signs of that, hospitals already are using antibiotics. It’s part of standard supportive care for severe pneumonia.
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By Polityk | 03/30/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Accuses Hospitals of Hoarding Ventilators
U.S. President Donald Trump accused hospitals on Sunday of hoarding ventilators that are in scarce supply across the United States as the coronavirus spreads, adding any hospitals not using the devices must release them.Trump, whose critics have accused him of trying to deflect blame over his handling of the crisis, did not cite any evidence to back his accusation that hospitals were hoarding the devices. It was also unclear which medical facilities he was referring to.”We have some healthcare workers, some hospitals … hoarding equipment including ventilators,” Trump said at the White House following a meeting with corporate executives, including from U.S. Medical Group.”We have to release those ventilators — especially hospitals that are never going to use them.”His remarks came just two days after Trump invoked emergency powers to require General Motors Co to build much-needed ventilators for coronavirus patients after he accused the largest U.S. automaker of “wasting time” during negotiations.Trump was more upbeat about GM on Sunday, saying the auto giant was “working very hard.”The Trump administration has been under pressure to ramp up the production of ventilators, which are essential to saving the lives of patients who develop complications with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, estimated in an interview with CNN on Sunday that the pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the United States.Speaking earlier on Sunday, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, told NBC television’s “Meet the Press” program that the administration was asking U.S. governors and mayors to know “where your anesthesia ventilators are.”On March 25, Trump issued an executive order to prevent hoarding of essential medical equipment to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, including ventilators and masks.The executive order authorized the U.S. government to directly target hoarders, who can be criminally prosecuted.But with the infection rate rising rapidly, Reuters has documented shortages of vital protective equipment in hospitals in hard-hit New York, where healthcare workers are hiding supplies such as facemasks from colleagues in other departments.As supply chains break down or delay delivery of vital equipment, nurses say they are locking away or hiding N95 respirator masks, surgical masks and other supplies that are prone to going missing if left unattended for long.
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By Polityk | 03/30/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Coronavirus Makes it Harder for US Presidential Candidates to Ask for Money
White House candidates aren’t usually bashful about asking supporters for money. But as the coronavirus upends everyday life, inundating hospitals, tanking financial markets and putting 3.3 million Americans out of work, President Donald Trump and his likely Democratic rival, Joe Biden, suddenly find themselves navigating perilous terrain. What used to be a routine request for political cash could now come across as tone-deaf or tacky. The two also run the risk of competing for limited dollars with charities trying to raise money for pandemic relief. With a recession potentially on the horizon, there’s a question of whether wealthy donors are in a giving mood and whether grassroots supporters who chip in small amounts will still have the wherewithal to keep at it. That presents a delicate challenge as both candidates try to stockpile the massive amounts of cash needed for the general election campaign. “It’s hard to have a conversation with someone right now to ask how they’re getting by, and then ask them for financial support in the next sentence,” said Greg Goddard, a Democratic fundraiser who worked for Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign before the Minnesota senator dropped out of the Democratic race. To Tim Lim, a Democratic consultant who worked for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, “it’s a world where no one has a good answer.” He said that ”on the fundraising side, we are going to take some massive hits as a party.” Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, March 12, 2020.The task is particularly acute for Biden. The former vice president is trying to pivot from the primary to the general election in a race essentially frozen by the virus. He lacks Trump’s reelection cash reserves, which were built up over the past three years of his presidency. Biden also has yet to clinch the nomination and won’t be able to do so until postponed primary contests are held in the months ahead. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, his sole remaining 2020 rival, has given no indication that he will back out, despite Biden’s virtually insurmountable lead in the delegate race. The pandemic has put all big-dollar fundraisers on hold, like all in-person political events. That’s forced Trump and Biden, for now, to rely on online fundraising. Biden is holding virtual fundraisers via video conferences. But they lack the exclusivity and tactile nature of an in-person event, where donors can network, see and be seen. Biden and Trump continue to send out fundraising emails and texts. “It isn’t easy for me to ask you for money today,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a fundraising email Thursday, seeking contributions as low as $5. “There are so many deserving charities and small businesses in your community where your money makes a huge difference right now. And of course, your own needs and the needs of your family take precedence.” But, she continued, “we have to keep fundraising because we have to keep campaigning. And we have to keep campaigning because it’s the only way we can defeat Trump in November.” President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus as he walks to Marine One to depart the White House, March 28, 2020, in Washington.Trump repeatedly played down the threat posed by the virus in the early days of the outbreak, and his campaign was no exception. It blasted out fundraising texts with familiar themes, such as attacking Biden, Sanders and the media. The campaign enticed donors by offering Trump-themed items, including a set of shamrock whiskey glasses offered up in exchange for a $35 contribution around St. Patrick’s Day. But in a March 12 message, his campaign also texted supporters a “coronavirus update,” which reflected Trump’s newfound concern over the virus and did not include a request for money. “The safety, security, and health of the American People is President Trump’s top priority right now,” the message said. It also urged supporters to visit the U.S government’s coronavirus website to “learn ways to keep you, your family, and your community safe.” His campaign has since returned to form, and one recent text excoriated former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whom Trump nicknamed “Mini Mike,” for using a provision in campaign finance law to transfer $18 million leftover from his abandoned presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee. Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany didn’t respond to a request for comment. On Saturday, the Biden and Trump campaigns sent out multiple fundraising requests over email and text. Biden asked for $5 while suggesting that Trump’s early minimizing of the virus means it “will hit all of us harder than it otherwise might have, and it will take us longer to recover.” Trump sent out an email with the subject line: “LET’S CRUSH IT.” The email asked supporters to “keep America great” and suggested that donations would help block “radical SOCIALISTS like Crazy Bernie or Quid Pro Joe gain an ounce of momentum.” Sanders has earned praise for turning to his army of small-dollar donors to raise $3.5 million for virus relief instead of his campaign. The senator, whose campaign is fueled by grassroots online donors, has stopped sending out fundraising emails. “Right now my focus is on this extraordinary crisis,” Sanders told The Associated Press on Wednesday, after declining to discuss the future of his campaign. Bloomberg also shelved plans to leverage his billions of dollars of personal wealth to run an outside group aimed at preventing Trump’s reelection. Instead, he recently promoted a $40 million philanthropic effort aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus. While the virus has disrupted many facets of life, Democratic fundraisers are optimistic that a degree of normalcy will return eventually. That will be a benefit to Biden. Trump, as the incumbent, controls the Republican National Committee, giving him a major fundraising edge Biden lacks because he is not the nominee. Fundraising committees controlled by political parties can take in massive sums for candidates, such as Trump, with whom they have entered into joint agreements. The DNC does not yet have a similar arrangement with Biden. His supporters are laying the groundwork for when it does. “People like me are quietly reaching out to the bigger donors to let them know we are about to enter the next phase,” said Steve Westly, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. “There’s not a lot of fundraising going on right now, but the big picture is we’re getting near the time when the DNC will be involved and there will be much higher limits.” Many Democrats also think Trump’s handling of the crisis will be a clarifying moment and they predicted an outpouring of donations once the campaign resumes. “We are in a life or death situation, and people like the idea of a competent president, like Joe Biden,” said Mathew Littman, a former Biden speechwriter who is the executive director of Win the West, a pro-Biden super PAC that is focusing on Western states. Still, Littman acknowledged that for at least the time being, fundraising might be a little slow. “Not everybody is going to be able to donate to a super PAC, that’s for sure,” he said.
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By Polityk | 03/29/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
New York’s Cuomo Postpones Primary as Coronavirus Cases Keep Growing
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday he was postponing the state’s April 28 presidential primary to June 23 as its number of coronavirus cases climbed to 53,339 and deaths to 728.“We have been behind this virus from day one. We are waiting to see what the virus does,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “You don’t win on defense. You win on offense. You have to get ahead of this.”The governor has become a leading national voice on the coronavirus pandemic as the state has accounted for roughly a third of the U.S. death toll and half the known cases.Cuomo said he asked pharmacies to begin delivering medications to homes free of charge. He also said President Donald Trump had approved the construction of four additional temporary hospital sites in New York City, adding 4,000 hospital beds.
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By Polityk | 03/29/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Signs Into Law $2T Coronavirus Relief Package
Within hours of the U.S. House’s overwhelming approval of a $2 trillion bill to blunt the economic destruction caused by the coronavirus, President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law.The rare and speedy bipartisan consensus in Congress to back the bill, the largest emergency aid package in American history, underscored the price of the pandemic.”I want to thank Democrats and Republicans for coming together and putting America first,” Trump said as he signed the bill, adding, “I’ve never signed anything with a T [for trillion].”The bipartisanship did not extend to the Oval Office, with only Republican lawmakers present, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.“It’s a proud moment for all of us,” McConnell said, praising the speed with which his fellow lawmakers worked for passage in record time.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signs the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act after it passed in the House on Capitol Hill, March 27, 2020, in Washington. President Donald Trump signed the bill later in the day.The president was also surrounded in the 75-square-meter room in the era of social distancing by Vice President Mike Pence, four members of his Cabinet and several other officials.Checks, loansChecks will be sent directly to individuals and families, unemployment benefits are to be greatly expanded, overwhelmed hospitals and health care providers will get government funding, and hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and loans will go to small businesses and big corporations.With the legislation enacted, the focus returns to what is happening on the front lines of the battle against the disease, which has infected more people in the United States than in any other country, according to statistics compiled by epidemiologists tracking the global spread of the virus.More than 100,000 people in the United States are known to have been infected by the virus and nearly 1,500 have died, including at least 366 in New York City alone.Health care workers in New York City, New Orleans and Detroit, among others, have spoken of watching patients go within hours from seemingly not seriously ill to gasping for air and needing assistance to breathe.More ventilatorsTrump on Friday demanded increased production of ventilators, a day after he questioned whether so many were required during the pandemic.”I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” Trump said on Fox News. “You know, you’re going to major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, can we order 30,000 ventilators?”In tweets on Friday morning, however, the president blamed automaker General Motors from backing off a promise to produce 40,000 ventilators very quickly and attacked the corporation’s chief executive officer, Mary Barra, accusing her of wanting “top dollar” for such work.As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Thea D’Adamo of TradeMas Inc. works with fellow NYSE-AMEX floor traders in an offsite trading office they built in her home when the New York Stock Exchange closed because of the coronavirus, in Brooklyn, N.Y., March 26, 2020.Wall Street remained worried. The Dow Jones industrial average on Friday closed down 915 points, a drop of 4 percent, snapping a winning streak that for the week saw the key index gaining 13 percent for its best week since 1938.Stock prices overall, however, remain far below the levels of late February, when concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus began to create widespread anxiety among traders.
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By Polityk | 03/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US House Passes $2T Coronavirus Rescue Package, Rushes It to Trump
The largest relief package in U.S. history is expected to be soon signed into law by President Donald Trump, after the $2 trillion coronavirus aid legislation passed a last-minute hurdle in the U.S. House of Representatives. The unprecedented legislation provides billions of dollars in funding to hospitals, small businesses, industries hard-hit by quarantines as well as directly sending cash to most low and middle-class Americans in an attempt to contain massive economic damage and lessen its impact. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aimed to pass the bill Friday using a procedural maneuver that would have prevented lawmakers from having to fly in from around the nation to vote in person on Capitol Hill. But Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of the southern state of Kentucky objected to passage of the stimulus by a voice vote, saying he objected to how much the rescue effort would add to the U.S. debt, which already totals more than $23 trillion. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., talks to reporters before leaving Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020, after attempting to slow action on a rescue package.Trump tweeted a warning earlier Friday telling the House Republican to not hold up passage of the bill. “Looks like a third rate Grandstander named Rep. Thomas Massie, a congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay.” Lawmakers returned from all around the country so that Congressional leadership could establish a quorum, overcoming Massie’s objections. Many lawmakers admitted that while they would vote for the aid, the quickly-drafted legislation was far from perfect. “We have to go into this vote eyes wide open,” Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor Friday. “What did the Senate Majority fight for? One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in American history. Shameful.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., walks Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020.“The option that we have is to either let them suffer with nothing or to allow this greed and billions of dollars which will be leveraged into trillions of dollars to contribute to the largest income inequality gap in our future,” Ocasio-Cortez said.The gigantic funding measure is designed to flood the U.S. economy with cash to overcome the significant downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed criticism of the legislation on the House floor Friday, saying “We’re not underwriting bad business practices, we are priming the pump. Ultimately, we are laying the foundation for rapid economic recovery. This bill is not only a rescue package, it is a commitment. A commitment that your government and the people whom you elected to serve will do everything We can to limit the harm and hardship you face.” Pelosi said the Democratic lawmakers who negotiated the pact with the majority Republican leaders in the Senate and the White House “didn’t get everything we wanted” in the measure, but that they “won the day.” Pelosi said she did not think the rescue package would end congressional efforts to prop up the U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, as the damage from the pandemic continues to wreak havoc.She said she did not “think we’ve seen the end of direct payments” to American workers.The rescue was approved by the Senate on a 96-0 vote late Wednesday after days of at times contentious negotiations. Members of the House of Representatives walk down the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020, after passing a coronavirus rescue package.Trump told reporters Wednesday evening at the White House that he would act quickly after congressional approval, saying the signing would mark “a great day for the American worker and for American families and, frankly, for American companies.” “I encourage the House to pass this vital legislation and send the bill to my desk for signature,” he said. “Without delay, I will sign it immediately.” The bill provides $500 billion in assistance to the hardest-hit major U.S. companies, another $367 billion to small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and $250 billion to bolster state-run unemployment compensation funds, as the ranks of the jobless have ballooned in the last two weeks. Nearly 3.3 million furloughed workers filed for unemployment compensation claims last week, a U.S. record. About $150 billion would go to help hospitals suddenly under the strain of caring for the flood of coronavirus patients.Another major plank of the aid package is aimed at helping most American families, with the government set to send about $3,400 to families of four — two parents and two children. The payouts could cover about 90% of U.S. households. Officials said some checks could be deposited in bank accounts within three weeks. Individual taxpayers would get $1,200, and couples $2,400, with aid ending for individuals earning more than $99,000 annually and $198,000 a year for couples. Trump says he wants to restart the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, as lockdown orders in many states have kept workers home and closed such businesses as restaurants, bars and movie theaters, as well as factories employing thousands of workers. On Tuesday, he said he hopes the country is “raring to go” by Easter Sunday, April 12. But medical experts have voiced skepticism, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths rising by the hour. The United States has more than 90,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 1,300 deaths.
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By Polityk | 03/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
With US Economy Likely in Recession, Central Bank Struggles to Limit Damage
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell says that the hundreds of thousands of business owners who have shut their doors as a part of the nationwide effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus are doing a public service, and that the central bank and other government agencies will do their best to help them recover from the economic damage that results.FILE – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference in Washington, March 3, 2020.In an interview Thursday on NBC’s Today Show, Powell said that the economy “may well” be in a recession already, but stressed that the underlying circumstances are vastly different from previous economic slowdowns. The interview took place on a day when it was reported that 3.3 million Americans had filed for unemployment compensation in the previous week — nearly five times the previous high set in 1982. “This is a unique situation — it’s not like a typical downturn,” he said. “We’ve asked people to step back from economic activity really to make an investment in our public health. They’re doing that for the public good.” As part of a government-wide effort, he said, the Fed is taking extraordinary steps to make sure that credit is available to businesses and individuals that need it in order to get through the shutdown without facing financial ruin. Speaking directly to Americans hit hard by the sudden suspension of economic activity, Powell added, “The Federal Reserve is working hard to support you now, and our policies will be very important, when the recovery does come, to make that recovery as strong as possible.” Fed can’t do it alone The Federal Reserve cannot save the American economy from the effects of a lengthy coronavirus shutdown all by itself, but it has a major role to play in limiting the damage a months-long shutdown will cause, and creating the opportunity for businesses to rebound once the crisis has passed. FILE – In this image from video, the final vote of 96-0 shows passage of the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package in response to coronavirus pandemic, passed by the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 25, 2020.Actions by the central bank are just part of a broader federal response, much of it laid out in a $2 trillion rescue package that was expected to receive congressional approval by the weekend. The package includes direct payments to individuals, financial support for struggling businesses, and an infusion of aid to states, whose budgets are being taxed by the costs of mounting a response to a global pandemic. The Treasury Department is also extending the deadline for 2019 income tax payments to July, effectively providing an interest-free loan to millions of Americans. Unlike the cash stimulus coming from Congress, which is meant to provide immediate relief and to spur demand, the Fed’s biggest mission is to make it possible for businesses and individuals to weather a lengthy shutdown with enough vitality left to start back up again once it is safe to do so. “We’re trying to create a bridge from our very strong economy to another place of economic strength, and that’s what our lending really does,” Powell said. $4.5 trillion in lending The economic stimulus approved unanimously by the Senate and the House of Representatives includes a provision directing the Treasury Department to provide the Fed with a $454 billion “backstop” to support a lending program. The money will effectively serve as a massive loan guarantee fund that the central bank can leverage tenfold to extend credit to banks that make loans to individuals and to businesses —including the small operations being hit hardest by the crisis. Powell said that for every dollar in loan guarantees, the Fed can extend about 10 dollars in credit, meaning that the legislation could support an unprecedented $4.5 trillion in credit. A construction worker sits alone along an empty sidewalk near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in New York City, New York, March 27, 2020.At the same time, the Fed and its fellow financial services regulators urged the institutions they supervise to make use of the unprecedented amount of funding available. In a joint release from the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, regulators said they “specifically encourage financial institutions to offer responsible small-dollar loans to both consumers and small businesses. The agencies recognize the important role that responsibly offered small-dollar loans can play in helping customers meet their needs for credit due to temporary cash-flow imbalances, unexpected expenses, or income short-falls during periods of economic stress or disaster recoveries.” Flexibility in repaymentGoing further, regulators asked lenders to make extra efforts to work with borrowers who have trouble repaying those loans. “For borrowers who experience unexpected circumstances and cannot repay a loan as structured, financial institutions are encouraged to consider workout strategies designed to help enable the borrower to repay the principal of the loan while mitigating the need to re-borrow.” Over the past few weeks, the central bank had taken multiple actions to keep credit flowing through the economy. On March 15, the Fed slashed its benchmark interest rates to zero and announced a program to buy as much as $700 billion in Treasury- and mortgage-backed securities, another step meant to keep rates low. In addition, the bank loosened credit requirements for banks that borrow directly from it, and eased regulatory restrictions that require banks to keep significant cash reserves.
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By Polityk | 03/28/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
‘Mr No’ – Meet US Congressman Who Might Delay Coronavirus Bill
U.S. Representative Thomas Massie enraged President Donald Trump on Friday as he has leaders of Congress worried he will delay a planned Friday voice vote on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic rescue plan, drawing calls from the White House to throw him out of the Republican Party.Even before the 49-year-old drew Trump’s ire on Twitter, he had been a thorn in the side of both parties so long that he’s nicknamed “Mr. No.””Throw Massie out of the Republican Party!” Trump tweeted on Friday.Looks like a third rate Grandstander named @RepThomasMassie, a Congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous……— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020…& costly. Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn’t their fault. It is “HELL” dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the “big picture” done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020Here are some facts about Massie:- Massie was first elected in 2012 with an assist from the conservative tea party movement, from a solidly Republican district in northern Kentucky along the Ohio River. An engineer by training who had built his own company on inventions he made, he beat two establishment Republicans in a primary election along the way.- In his first House vote in 2013, Massie opposed the re-election of John Boehner as speaker. Massie aligned with conservative and libertarian Republicans who formed the Freedom Caucus in 2015, but did not join the caucus.- By 2014, Massie had voted “no” so many times on legislation that Politico dubbed him “Mr. No.” He opposed about a third of measures that came up in his first year, voting against large and small bills sponsored by both parties, from defense spending legislation to a bill to award a gold medal to golf star Jack Nicklaus.- Massie opposed many bills on a cost basis. He joked once that the buttons lawmakers push to register their votes on the House floor – which are labeled “yea” and “nay” – should be relabeled “spend” and “don’t spend,” USA Today reported.- Massie voted twice against the election of former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican. Last year he was one of six Republicans to vote against his party’s candidate, Kevin McCarthy for Speaker; Massie voted instead for Republican Jim Jordan, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. (Democrat Nancy Pelosi won)- Sometimes Massie has worked across party lines on civil liberties issues, such as by opposing bulk data collection by the government. He favors loosening gun laws. He was one of three House Republicans to vote against relief for Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and one of two to vote against additional sanctions on North Korea.
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By Polityk | 03/27/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
COVID-19 Delays US Primaries, Sparks Worries for November Election
With much of America on partial lockdown, the coronavirus pandemic is altering nearly every aspect of people’s daily lives. The pathogen is also having an immediate and possibly permanent impact on how the nation chooses its leaders.Lauren Jewett is a special education teacher in Louisiana, the first state to announce the postponement of its Democratic primary due to coronavirus. She is concerned issues could linger all the way to November’s general election in which President Donald Trump will face the eventual Democratic nominee. “How will we vote? How will we register others to vote? How do we canvass [neighborhoods for a candidate]?” Jewett asks. “This could affect the outcome of November’s presidential election and that election could affect the country for a very long time.”
Louisiana has emerged as a COVID-19 hot spot with one of the world’s fastest growth rates for confirmed infections. Within a week, the state went from reporting fewer than 100 cases to nearly 1,400 on Tuesday.
Even before Louisiana’s exponential growth rates were recorded, on March 13, Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards ordered the state’s April 4 primary election postponed until June 20.
Ten other states and territories have since followed suit in delaying their primaries. Many Louisiana voters say they understand the need to protect public health, while some also note that their voice in the primary process effectively has been muzzled.Ohio Postpones Democratic Primaries as 3 States Go Ahead With Voting Ohio Governor says people should not have to choose between their health and casting a ballot The Decision to Postpone
“Postponing the primaries was absolutely the right thing to do, given the circumstances,” says voter Ernesto Noguera. “People’s lives and health have to be the top priority.”
New Orleans voter Marielle Pichon adds, “My only frustration is that other states like Arizona, Florida and Illinois went forward with their elections. That feels irresponsible.”Tyler Brey, press secretary for Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, tells VOA that Louisiana officials weren’t focused on what other states were doing.
“We made our decision based solely on the safety of our state’s voters,” he explains, “and that includes our poll workers — many of which are above the age of 65 and most in danger.”
Brey notes that Louisiana opted to postpone the primary before early voting had begun in the state, saying, “We weren’t yet in the middle of an election, and we didn’t want to halt one after it started.”
State law includes a provision for the postponement of elections. The secretary of state can communicate an emergency to the governor, who, in turn, can issue an executive order to postpone.
Brey says Ardoin, a Republican, began that process after examining other voting options, such as conducting an election via mail-in, or absentee ballots.
“I don’t think people realize all that goes into that process,” Brey says. “There wasn’t enough time to get ballots printed, to get the proper envelopes, to get them sent out to voters and to have them returned.”
While the Republican Party’s nomination of Trump for another term in office is a foregone conclusion, the Democratic presidential contest was, until recent weeks, wide open. Even now, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders remains in the race despite former Vice President Joe Biden’s seemingly insurmountable lead in delegates to the Democratic National Convention in mid-July.
FILE – Former U.S. vice president Joe Biden, left, and Senator Bernie Sanders greet each other with a safe elbow bump before the start of the 11th Democratic Party 2020 presidential debate in a CNN Washington studio in Washington, March 15, 2020.Postponing primaries not only erodes voters’ impact on the nominating contest, it has the potential to hobble states’ participation at the convention.
Consequences
Current Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules dictate that all nominating contests must be completed by June 9 and that all delegate rosters must be submitted by June 20 – nearly four weeks before the start of the Democratic National Convention in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
DNC rules state that missing the deadlines could result in a state losing half of its votes on the convention floor. A spokesperson for the DNC says their Rules and Bylaws Committee is examining the rule in light of extraordinary circumstances brought about by COVID-19, but that no decision has been made on whether to suspend the stipulation.
The prospect of losing representation at the national convention after postponing the primary contest is disheartening to many Democratic voters in Louisiana, especially given that Trump is heavily favored to carry the state in November. Voter Pichon says she feels that choosing the Democratic nominee is the only area in which she has a real voice in deciding who becomes president.
“I don’t feel like I have a say in November’s election,” she says, noting that America’s electoral college system awards all delegates from a state to the candidate who wins that state’s popular vote. “In the primary, though, margins matter. Every vote counts towards gaining delegates.”
Pichon adds, “Cutting our delegates in half due to a pandemic is disenfranchising.”
Working Toward Solutions
“We’ve heard quite a bit from voters who wonder why we don’t have access to other voting methods like mail-in voting or an absentee ballot system,” Brey says. “It’s something we’re definitely looking at now, but it’s not something we’d have ready for June’s primary.”
Many voting rights organizations say they appreciate the challenges states face planning for elections during a pandemic. At the same time, they are pushing states to ensure democratic participation is not curtailed.
“State officials are making incredibly complicated decisions trying to prioritize public health while protecting democratic processes,” says Caren Short, senior staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “What has been made abundantly clear by this crisis is the importance of providing options for voters who cannot register in person or vote in person on election day at their polling place.”
Short says measures should include online and same-day voter registration, expanded early voting to avoid large and crowded waits, expanded vote-by-mail and absentee ballot programs, the recruitment of poll-workers from less at-risk populations and curbside voting.
Late Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed an economic bill that provides $400 million to help states prepare for elections during the pandemic. A coalition of more than 150 local and national organizations led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Humans Rights, believes much more is necessary, requesting $2 billion to make voting safer and easier for all.
“If our government officials fail to act, voters may have to choose between their health and their vote come November,” Short says, “and no one should have to make that choice.”
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By Polityk | 03/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
In Self-Isolation, Biden Launches Media Blitz to Attack Trump Over Virus
Until a few days ago, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden kept a low profile while in protective self-isolation from the coronavirus at his home in Delaware.After surging past chief rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Super Tuesday and in a handful of subsequent crucial primaries, Biden and the Democratic primary contest were abruptly overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis sweeping the nation.But as Democratic criticism of President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic has grown, Biden, 77, seems to have found an opening to speak out more — to critique the president and explain how he would have handled the situation differently.Workers construct what is believed to be a makeshift morgue behind a hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, in the Manhattan borough of New York City on March 25, 2020.In a speech Monday and a subsequent media blitz, Biden criticized Trump for being slow in responding to the virus, ignoring medical experts’ advice and playing down the threat, even as his own intelligence officials were warning him about it as early as January.“For too long, the warning signs were ignored,” Biden said during the live-streamed speech from a tiny TV studio built in his home.”For too long, the administration said the threats were “under control,” “contained,” “like the flu.” Biden then took Trump to task for failing to exercise powers under the Defense Production Act to order manufacturers to ramp up production of medical supplies such as ventilators and surgical masks.Trump keeps saying he’s ‘a wartime president.’ Well, start to act like one,” Biden said.Trump has signed two executive orders invoking powers under the Korean War-era law but has said he is reserving it for “a worst-case scenario.”The president has backed a series of massive spending bills to address the public health crisis and temporarily prop up the economy and has supported state and local orders that have forced as many as 100 million Americans to shelter in place.A couple walk a dog at sunset March 25, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. The city, along with neighboring counties, is under Stay at Home orders to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.As China locked down major cities hit by the virus in January, the Trump administration on January 31 announced travel restrictions to and from China, and on March 12, imposed a ban on most travel from Europe.However, Trump’s latest call for a major scaling back of the shelter-in-place orders by Easter to allow millions to return to their jobs and recharge the economy — even while the virus continues to spread throughout the country at an alarming pace — has drawn fire from Democrats, governors, public health experts and scientists.The crisis has put Biden in a tight spot.The virus grew into a full-blown pandemic earlier this month, just as the former vice president was basking in a surprise comeback during key primary contests for the Democratic nomination.But with the country focused on the crisis and the Trump’s administration’s response, Biden’s campaign has struggled to garner attention.Patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a COVID-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center, March 25, 2020, in New York.A detailed coronavirus plan released by the Biden campaign earlier this month seems to have fallen by the wayside. The plan promised a “decisive public health response,” including widely available free testing and a “decisive economic response,” including paid leave and help for small businesses affected by the pandemic. “What a challenge!” said Joseph Pika, a retired University of Delaware political scientist who has followed Biden’s political career.”Campaigns are usually based on what has worked before, especially during the last presidential election cycle. This requires the managers to be creative.” Pika said via email that while Biden’s speech was “effective,” as it came before Trump adopted a “war-time commander-chief posture,” the former vice president now runs the risk of appearing to take partisan advantage of a crisis.What’s more, Trump’s approval rating has risen as he began making almost daily appearances with his coronavirus task force to tout administration efforts to combat the virus.A subway rider wears a glove while holding a pole as several riders wear face masks during the coronavirus outbreak on the D train in the Brooklyn borough of New York on March 25, 2020.Seeking to avoid charges of partisanship during a national emergency, Biden has carefully avoided blaming Trump for the virus outbreak.“The coronavirus is not his fault, but the lack of speed with which to respond to it has to move much faster,” Biden said on ABC’s “The View” on Monday.”This is not about Democrat or Republican. This is not about what your party is. It’s about getting through this.”It was one of Biden’s three TV appearances on Monday, including CNN and MSNBC. They were all designed to project an air of authority and a different leadership style in the face of the nation’s worst public health disaster in more than a century.Appearing on CNN after Trump announced Tuesday that he wanted to “reopen the country” by Easter on April 12, Biden suggested the president’s goal was unrealistic given that the virus is still spreading. “Look, we all want the economy to open as rapidly as possible,” Biden said. “But the idea that we’re in a position where we’re saying, by Easter, he wants to have everybody going back to work. What’s he talking about?”An aerial view shows the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, shortly before sunset, with lighter than normal traffic as the coronavirus pandemic continues on March 25, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.Biden has made his decades of public service a centerpiece of his career. He served as a Democratic senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, and two terms as vice president during the Obama presidency from 2009 to 2017.As Biden has chided Trump over the coronavirus, the Trump campaign has pushed back, citing Biden’s own much-criticized comments about the way germs move during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. “Joe Biden will again politicize coronavirus today.But his record on pandemics is one of incompetence,” a Twitter account managed by the Trump campaign tweeted.During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science & the experts. The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess & apologize for his ineptitude.”Fact-checking site PolitiFact rated the Trump team’s claim as “mostly true,” reporting that Biden’s comment “drew criticism over fear-mongering, particularly from the travel industry, and experts told us Biden got it wrong.”Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said Biden should explain how he would handle the crisis differently.“What’s important for him to do is to showcase, to tell what he would do differently and to explain what difference that would have made so that people can make a decision about his crisis leadership should he become president,” Rozell said in an interview.
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By Polityk | 03/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate Passes Economic Relief Bill as Lawmakers Race to Help Economy Hit Hard by Coronavirus
The U.S. Senate late Wednesday passed an unprecedented economic relief package aimed at propping up an American economy increasingly paralyzed by efforts to contain the coronavirus.The bill still must clear the Democratic-majority House of Representatives before being signed into law by President Donald Trump. House leaders said they expect the bill to pass by a voice vote on Friday.Stock markets plunged again at the beginning of this week – following last week’s losses that wiped out nearly all gains recorded during Trump’s presidency – as activity in public places across the country ground to a halt. In this photo taken March 20, 2020, Mike Johnston, a clerk at the Maupin Market in Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the coronavirus.With factories, businesses, restaurants and schools shutting down and entire industries in shambles, workers are facing layoffs, cutbacks in hours or having to make the difficult choice of working while ill if they lack paid sick leave. The $2 trillion economic relief package will directly affect the American people, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday, and “could make the difference in the next few months between putting food on the table and going hungry, between surviving this period of unemployment and financial ruin.” Lawmakers and the White House have moved through a series of phases intended to rescue the U.S. economy. Here is a summary of what each phase has been designed to do.Phase oneLawmakers initially focused on funding U.S. public health efforts to combat the coronavirus, passing an $8.3 billion package earlier this month. Trump asked Congress for a little more than $2 billion in funding, with a plan to fund $535 million of that request by rerouting unused funds allocated to fight Ebola. Democrats pushed back on that plan and ultimately negotiated a bill with the White House that included $3 billion for coronavirus vaccine development and $1 billion for U.S. international aid efforts to combat the virus.Phase twoThe House of Representatives took the lead on negotiating the first bill with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to address the devastating economic impact of the crisis. The Senate passed phase two of the bill last week by a 90-8 vote. The bill offers COVID-19 testing without cost, an extension of unemployment benefits to address the needs of workers who may be laid off due to the crisis, as well as paid sick leave for workers at some U.S. companies. Lower-income workers in the United States make up one-quarter of the American workforce that has no access to paid sick leave. The House-passed bill has several loopholes, which means the sick-leave extension would not apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees or more than 500 workers. The bill also caps the amount of sick leave pay workers can collect.Phase threeThe Senate took the lead on working with the White House to craft a massive $2 trillion economic relief plan.“The strange new reality has forced our nation into something like wartime,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday of the need to address the economic impact of the coronavirus.McConnell said the legislation addresses four urgent priorities, including delivering aid directly to the American people, stabilizing key hard-hit industries such as the airlines, stabilizing small businesses hurt by closures and increasing aid to the healthcare industry.Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina delivers remarks during a news conference on the coronavirus relief bill in Washington, D.C., March 25, 2020.Schumer, who described the legislation as “the largest rescue package in American history” had unexpected leverage in the negotiations. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Sunday became the first U.S. senator to test positive for the coronavirus. His absence – along with self-quarantining measures by Utah Senators Mike Lee and Mitt Romney – meant McConnell had to have Democratic votes to pass the measure.Democrats pushed for added controls over a $500 billion fund aiding corporations, including the airline and cargo industries, that have been particularly hard hit by travel stoppages.“If any of these loans look untoward, if any of these loans don’t look right, if any of these loans shouldn’t go to where they’re going, the public, the Congress will know quickly,” Schumer said Wednesday.The legislation would also increase the amount of unemployment insurance to out-of- work Americans to four months while providing direct cash assistance of up to $1,200 to most lower- and middle-class individuals and $2,400 to married couples, with $500 for each child.Small businesses, state and local governments and hospitals and other health care providers will all receive billions of dollars in funding to address the impact of the coronavirus. The legislation will account for 8 percent of the entire gross domestic product of the United States, according to Gabriel Mathy, an economics professor at the American University. “The $2 trillion figure is actually greater than an entire year of the federal budget,” said Matt Dallek, a political history professor at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. “So, it’s obviously historic, and it looks like the bill is more than double the massive stimulus President Obama signed in 2009.” Dallek said that “just because the price tag is unprecedented doesn’t mean it is sufficient to meet the nation’s economic emergency.” House Democrats are already discussing fourth and fifth phases of legislation to address the crisis.
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By Polityk | 03/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Appeals to Congress to Pass COVID Stimulus Bill
U.S. President Donald Trump is appealing to both houses of the U.S. Congress to pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill aimed at rebooting an economy brought to a standstill by the coronavirus pandemic.It is the biggest single package to help American citizens and shuttered businesses cope with the ensuing disaster.The Senate and White House hammered out the details Wednesday after a complex series of negotiations and procedural votes.While it includes a lot of provisions aimed at relieving the economic stress, the bill’s outstanding features include cash payments to individuals and married couples making less than $99,000 a year.In this photo taken March 20, 2020, Mike Johnston, a clerk at the Maupin Market in Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the coronavirus.Unemployment benefits are boosted, student loan payments suspended, and the badly hit airline industry will get tens of millions of dollars in help.The bill specifies that none of Trump’s businesses will benefit and no money for the Pentagon can be spent on the border wall.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that the administration anticipates the stimulus package will keep the economy afloat for three months.“Hopefully, we won’t need this for three months,” he added.The bill contains details that both Democrats and Republicans say they don’t like.But even Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has threatened to block it, said he supports the plan overall.It was unclear as of late Wednesday when the full Senate and House will vote on the bill.If the Senate passes it, it goes to the House, which is currently not in session. Representatives would either agree to its passage by unanimous consent, or return to Washington to vote, risking debate and objections by lawmakers from both sides who are unhappy with some of its provisions.Late Wednesday, the government of Washington, D.C., ordered a citywide lockdown with the number of cases in the city and suburbs topping 1,000.FILE: Researchers work with coronavirus samples as a trial begins to see whether malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine can prevent or reduce the severity of the coronavirus disease, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, March 19, 2020.The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. now exceeds 900, with New York City the epicenter of the country’s outbreak.Mayor Bill de Blasio bitterly complained Wednesday that the stimulus bill doesn’t do enough to help the country’s largest city. He blamed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and said he will appeal directly to President Trump for more help.Spain has now surpassed China and only trails Italy as the world’s coronavirus hot spot. China has lifted the lockdown on Hubei province, where the global outbreak began in December.China had been the epicenter of the pandemic but reported just 67 new cases Wednesday – all of them in people who came to China from overseas.Russia confirmed its first coronavirus deaths Wednesday, and Britain’s Prince Charles has become one of the most recognizable names to become ill.The heir to the British throne has isolated himself in Scotland, saying his symptoms are mild. He said he is not sure where or how he caught the virus.As of late Wednesday, nearly 469,000 people around the world were infected and close to 21,200 had died. The coronavirus has now reached every country on Earth.
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By Polityk | 03/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Lawmakers Race to Help Economy Hit Hard by Coronavirus
U.S. lawmakers are set to pass an unprecedented economic relief package this week to prop up an American economy increasingly paralyzed by efforts to contain the coronavirus. Stock markets plunged again at the beginning of this week — following last week’s losses that wiped out nearly all gains recorded during U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidency — as activity in public places across the country ground to a halt.With factories, businesses, restaurants and schools shutting down and entire industries in shambles, workers are facing layoffs, cutbacks in hours or the prospect of working while ill if they lack paid sick leave.FILE – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks following meetings on coronavirus economic aid legislation, in Washington, March 22, 2020.The $2 trillion economic relief package expected to pass both chambers of Congress this week will directly impact the American people, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday, and it “could make the difference in the next few months between putting food on the table and going hungry, between surviving this period of unemployment and financial ruin.” Lawmakers and the White House have moved through a series of phases intended to rescue the U.S. economy. Here is a summary of what each phase has been designed to do.Phase oneLawmakers initially focused on funding U.S. public health efforts to combat the coronavirus, passing an $8.3 billion package earlier this month. Trump asked Congress for a little more than $2 billion in funding, with a plan to fund $535 million of that request by rerouting unused funds allocated to fight Ebola. Democrats pushed back on that plan and ultimately negotiated a bill with the White House that included $3 billion for coronavirus vaccine development and $1 billion for U.S. international aid efforts to combat the virus. Phase twoThe Democratic-majority House of Representatives took the lead on negotiating the first bill with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to address the devastating economic impact of the crisis. A firefighter screens people in a car who are waiting in line to get a COVID-19 test at a free public testing station, March 24, 2020, in Hayward, Calif.The Senate passed phase two of the bill last week by a 90-8 vote. The bill offers COVID-19 testing without cost, an extension of unemployment benefits to address the needs of workers who may be laid off because of the crisis, and paid sick leave for workers at some U.S. companies. Lower-income workers in the United States make up one-quarter of the American workforce that has no access to paid sick leave. The sick-leave extension in the bill would not apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees or more than 500 workers. The bill also would cap the amount of sick-leave pay workers can collect.Phase threeThe Senate took the lead on working with the White House to craft a massive $2 trillion economic relief plan. “The strange new reality has forced our nation into something like wartime,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday of the need to address the economic impact of the coronavirus. McConnell said the legislation addresses four urgent priorities: delivering aid directly to the American people, stabilizing key hard-hit industries such as the airlines, stabilizing small businesses hurt by closures, and increasing aid to the health care industry. Schumer, who described the legislation as “the largest rescue package in American history,” had unexpected leverage in the negotiations. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Sunday became the first U.S. senator to test positive for the coronavirus. His absence and self-quarantining measures by Utah Senators Mike Lee and Mitt Romney meant McConnell had to have Democratic votes to pass the measure. Democrats pushed for added controls over a $500 billion fund aiding corporations, including the airline and cargo industries, that have been particularly hard hit by travel stoppages.“If any of these loans look untoward, if any of these loans don’t look right, if any of these loans shouldn’t go to where they’re going, the public, the Congress, will know quickly,” Schumer said Wednesday. FILE – Tips, money collected from a customer donation fund and a last paycheck for employees laid off from Farley’s East cafe, which closed because of the coronavirus outbreak, sits on a counter at the cafe in Oakland, Calif., March 18, 2020.Direct cash aidThe legislation would also increase the amount of unemployment insurance to out-of- work Americans to four months while providing direct cash assistance of up to $1,200 to most lower- and middle-class individuals and $2,400 to married couples, with $500 for each child. Small businesses, state and local governments, and hospitals and other health care providers will all receive billions of dollars in funding to address the impact of the coronavirus. The legislation will account for 8% of the entire gross domestic product of the United States, according to Gabriel Mathy, an economics professor at American University in Washington.“The $2 trillion figure is actually greater than an entire year of the federal budget,” said Matt Dallek, a political history professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management in Washington. “So it’s obviously historic, and it looks like the bill is more than double the massive stimulus President [Barack] Obama signed in 2009.” Lawmakers are aiming to pass this new round of economic relief by the end of this week to try to calm an anxious public. Once the bill passes the Senate, it will still need to clear the House before being signed into law by the president. House Democrats said Wednesday that they were reviewing the legislation and could vote on it as early as Thursday. Dallek noted that “just because the price tag is unprecedented doesn’t mean it is sufficient to meet the nation’s economic emergency.” House Democrats are already discussing fourth and fifth phases of legislation to address the crisis.
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By Polityk | 03/26/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Poll: Biden Holds Slight Edge Over Trump in 2020 Presidential Race
A new poll in the U.S. shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a negligible lead nationally over President Donald Trump ahead of November’s election, but a sizeable advantage in 300 closely contested counties that could determine the outcome. The Monmouth University poll released Tuesday shows Biden, the likely Democratic presidential candidate, ahead of the Republican president 48% to 45% in the national survey taken in recent days.FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump picket outside an event for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at a campaign stop in Manchester, N.H., Oct. 9, 2019.U.S. elections, however, are not decided by a national popular vote, but rather in the Electoral College that is determined by the outcome of the vote in each of the 50 states. Trump assumed the presidency three years ago after narrowly winning key states in the Electoral College vote in 2016, even as Democrat Hillary Clinton won nearly 3 million more votes nationally. Monmouth said its survey shows that the 2020 election could be just as close. But it said Biden holds a considerable edge over Trump — 50% to 41% — in 300 counties across the country where either Trump or Clinton won in 2016 by less than 10 percentage points. In 2016, Clinton won the cumulative vote in the 300 counties by just a single percentage point. The outcome in the 300 counties, which account for about a fifth of the total U.S. electorate, could prove crucial in helping determine the outcome in individual states, and thus how its Electoral College votes are awarded. FILE – Biden for President buttons are for sale beside “Impeach Trump Now!” buttons as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden meets union workers at the Teamsters Local 249 hall in Pittsburgh, April 29, 2019.”The race looks tight right now between Trump and the probable Democratic nominee,” said Patrick Murray, the poll’s director. “But as we learned in 2016, the outcome will be determined by the Electoral College rather than the national popular vote. The poll results suggest Biden may actually be starting out with an advantage in crucial swing areas of the country.” The Monmouth survey also showed that in the traditionally Republican counties Trump won handily in 2016 against Clinton, he would fare almost equally as well against Biden, with Biden likewise holding a wide edge in counties won by Clinton four years ago. Biden, in his third run for the U.S. presidency over three decades, has yet to lock down the Democratic presidential nomination over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders but holds a perhaps insurmountable edge in pledged delegates to the party’s national nominating convention in July. While Trump and Biden regularly trade political barbs, the national presidential campaign is all but on hold while much of the country is sheltering at home to combat the spread of the coronavirus. With calls for a hiatus in large gatherings, neither Biden nor Trump is staging any public political rallies for now.
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By Polityk | 03/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Trump Pushes Congress on Coronavirus Rescue Aid
U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Congress Tuesday to quickly complete negotiations on a $2 trillion economic rescue package to help American workers and businesses severely impacted by the deadly coronavirus.“Congress must approve the deal, without all of the nonsense, today,” Trump said on Twitter. “The longer it takes, the harder it will be to start up our economy. Our workers will be hurt!” Congress must approve the deal, without all of the nonsense, today. The longer it takes, the harder it will be to start up our economy. Our workers will be hurt!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks outside her office on Capitol Hill, March 23, 2020.She added, “The country has to make that decision, and it’s not a question of let old, sick people die so the markets can thrive. I hear that in some of the conversation. It’s about how we address this in a scientific way and not notion-mongering, but evidence-based decision-making.”Republican and Democratic leaders have exchanged sharp words as negotiations on the aid package unfolded in recent days, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accusing Democrats of delaying the process by asking for changes to the bill and Schumer saying McConnell wasted time by bringing two procedural votes on the measure he knew would fail.Democrats first blocked advancing the aid package on Sunday. After more negotiations Sunday night and Monday morning, they again voted against moving the legislation forward on Monday afternoon, triggering the fresh talks between Schumer and Mnuchin, with a phone call to Trump.The aid package is aimed at boosting the U.S. economy by sending direct payments to more than 90% of Americans and a vast array of U.S. businesses to help them weather the immediate and burgeoning economic effects of the coronavirus.Most U.S. families of four would get $3,000 in assistance, with the aid package also creating the $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities and states, and $350 billion more to help small businesses meet payroll costs at a time when there is a declining demand for their products and services.Democrats focused their objections on the $500 billion lending program for businesses, which some critics called a “slush fund” because the Treasury Department would have wide discretion over who gets the money, with little accounting for how the money is spent.That led to inclusion of an oversight panel to review the government handouts to businesses, to try to make certain the money is spent appropriately.Governors in at least 13 states have ordered millions of people to stay home, in effect quarantined, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. No national shutdown is planned.The toll from the coronavirus is mounting in the U.S. Nearly 44,000 cases have been confirmed, with more than 500 deaths. Both figures have markedly increased in recent days.
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By Polityk | 03/25/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
Coronavirus Suddenly Upends Campaign Themes for Both Parties
The coronavirus pandemic and the nation’s crashing economy are scrambling the themes both major political parties thought would carry them to victory in November for control of the White House and Congress.
Shattered, certainly for now, is President Donald Trump’s ability to tout a brawny economy and record stock market prices as the predicate for his reelection. The GOP could face a hard time calling Democratic candidates socialists with a straight face as Congress works on a bipartisan, near $2 trillion rescue package that would essentially have government drive the economy indefinitely.
Democrats say they’re the party that will protect people’s health care, but it’s unclear that would be heard by people focused mostly on when life will return to normal. And by pounding away at Trump’s competence, they’d risk alienating voters who, during a stressful time, want policymakers to produce solutions, not partisan wrangling.
“We’re in the middle of a hurricane. We don’t know all the political consequences. We don’t know if it’s a Cat 1 or a Cat 5,” said GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak, referring to categories used to express the strength of storms.
Trump has seized public attention with almost daily briefings about the government’s response to the pandemic. That’s left former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and his party’s congressional candidates searching for ways to break into the news cycle.
Clearly, campaign themes are changing.
Five political advertisers had run ads mentioning the coronavirus through last week, according to Advertising Analytics, a firm that tracks ad data. That included one in Florida, in Spanish, by Biden, and two by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
“In times like this, we must work together,” Collins, who faces a competitive November reelection in a state that prizes independence, tells the camera.
More are coming.
Priorities USA, the largest outside Democratic political organization, planned to start ads Tuesday in election battlegrounds Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The spot plays Trump’s own words, including, “We have it totally under control,” as a bar graph displays the skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases.
The spot ends as “AMERICA NEEDS A LEADER WE CAN TRUST” is displayed against a black background.
GOP operatives say Republican candidates must emphasize rallying behind the effort to battle the twin crises.
“The message is, ‘We all need to come together, support the president and vice president and do all we can to fight the virus,'” Republican strategist John Feehery said. “Throw everything else out the window.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee provided a memo last week offering guidance to its candidates.
“Remind followers through your actions that you take this seriously and would be a calm voice through crisis,” the House Democratic political arm said in the guidance obtained by The Associated Press.
It urged candidates to discuss the significance of health care access and affordability — issues that helped the party capture House control in 2018. It suggested asking voters, “How are you doing?” and “Do you need anything” during phone calls.
Among the first to test the new political world will be two rivals for an open seat in a narrowly divided House district in Los Angeles’ northern suburbs.
Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith face a special election in May, when voters seem certain to still be focused on the virus and the battered economy. As elsewhere, efforts to curb the infection’s spread means campaign phone calls and digital communications are replacing public events.
Both concede it’s hard to get people’s attention, but each said they are already sharpening their appeals to voters.
During tough times, people “remember what the important things are, and that’s God, country and family,” Garcia, a Trump supporter and former Navy fighter pilot, said in an interview. “We’re all on the same team.”
“Patriotism alone doesn’t set food on people’s tables,” said Smith, a state assemblywoman. She said that Trump’s virus response has put the U.S. “woefully behind” the infection and that it’s time for “a reckoning on what effective government looks like.”
Both parties say it’s too early to know if the virus will be contained and the economy resuscitated by the time voters focus on the fall campaigns — and whether they’ll blame or laud Trump and the GOP for the outcome.
Either way, Trump is casting himself as a wartime president in hopes of garnering the broad public support that usually goes to national leaders in times of crisis.
His reelection campaign has been using the emergencies in fundraising appeals that offer supporters autographed “Keep America Great” hats. “Our country is facing unprecedented times right now and President Trump is working around the clock to keep our Nation and its citizens safe,” his emails say.
Biden used a fundraiser, held by phone, to swipe at Trump, who’s made numerous false statements about the virus, including on its seriousness and the availability of tests.
“We need to tell the American people the truth, the unvarnished truth,” Biden said.
“Look what we have in the White House right now,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., using that same theme. Bustos, who heads House Democrats’ campaign arm, cited Trump’s lashing out at reporters during new briefings and said, “We all look for leaders to lead in a crisis.”
Democrats are also using the virus’ spread to reprise their call for better health care.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats marked Monday’s 10th anniversary of President Barack Obama signing his health care overhaul into law. “We couldn’t need it more” than during this pandemic, Pelosi told reporters about the statute. She blamed Trump for making “mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake” in handling the outbreak.
And on the Senate floor Monday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., underscored something both parties will be looking for: ways to taint the other for using the life-altering crises to seek political gain.
McConnell accused Democrats of viewing the chamber’s blocked economic bill as “a juicy political opportunity” and trying to stuff it with environmental requirements and other priorities.
“Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing to do with this crisis? That’s what they’re up to over there,” he said.
Still, Republicans concede the party faces a huge downside should the virus remain uncontrolled.
“If we become Italy,” said the consultant Mackowiak, citing the country with the highest death toll so far, “there’s no question the party in power would pay a political price for that. Absolutely no question.
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By Polityk | 03/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Senate Fails Again to Advance Massive Coronavirus Aid Package
The U.S. Senate failed for a second time Monday to advance a massive $2 trillion economic aid package to send money to most Americans and many businesses that have been severely impacted by the deadly coronavirus.Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell chided Democrats for trying to add provisions not directly related to the coronavirus pandemic.“Markets are tanking once again because this body can’t get its act together,” McConnell said.“This has got to stop and today is the day it has to stop,” McConnell said. “The country is out of time.”But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “We’re getting close to reaching a deal, very close,” contending that procedural votes called by McConnell were a waste of time. Schumer said he expects the legislation to be approved later Monday.“We all know time is of the essence,” Schumer said, adding, “We have obligations to get the details right. That means working to make this bill better.”Democrats first blocked advancing the aid package on Sunday and, after more negotiations on Sunday night and Monday morning, again voted against moving the legislation forward on Monday afternoon. Neither vote came close to reaching the required 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to move the legislation toward final debate and a concluding vote.At a Glance: Nearly $2 Trillion Coronavirus Rescue PackageThe details are subject to change as congressional leaders and the White House continue negotiating the nearly $2 trillion packageDemocrats said it was weighted too heavily to favor businesses over workers, hospitals and health care professionals. Republicans accused the Democrats of obstructing the aid at a time Americans need it the most as the effects of the virus severely impact their jobs and financial well-being. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. President Donald Trump’s key negotiator with lawmakers, rejected Democrats’ claims that aid would assist American businesses at the expense of individual workers.“This isn’t corporate welfare,” Mnuchin told the Fox Business Network. “This helps all American workers.”Later, after a new round of talks, Mnuchin said, “We look forward to a big vote today. We knocked off a bunch of things on the list already, and we’re closing out issues.”But then the Senate again voted against advancing the legislation.The aid package was aimed at boosting the U.S. economy by sending direct payments to more than 90% of Americans and a vast array of U.S. businesses to help them weather the immediate and burgeoning economic effects of the coronavirus.Most U.S. families of four would get $3,000 in assistance, with the aid package also creating a $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities and states and $350 billion more to help small businesses meet payroll costs at a time when there is a declining demand for their products and services.Democrats focused their objections on the $500 billion lending program for businesses, which some critics are calling it a “slush fund” because the Treasury Department would have wide discretion over who gets the money with little accounting for how the money is spent. Trump appeared to agree with the Democrats’ contention.“I don’t want to give a bailout to a company and then have somebody go out and use that money to buy back stock in the company and raise the (stock) price and then get a bonus,” Trump said Sunday. “So, I may be Republican, but I don’t like that. I want them to use the money for the workers.”The negotiations over the scope and details of the legislation came as European and U.S. stock indexes continued their freefall in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.By mid-afternoon, two key U.S. market indexes had dropped more than 3%, with similar losses in Europe Wall Street was coming off its worst week since 2008 and investors were looking to Congress and the rescue package to stem the losses.Even as the lawmakers talked Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ophthalmologist by profession, announced that he had contracted the coronavirus, the first senator and the third member of Congress to test positive.Aside from the obvious impact of the public health crisis, perhaps 2 million or more U.S. workers have been laid off from their jobs as thousands of schools, national businesses and such community enterprises as gyms, restaurants, bars and stores have shut their doors, either voluntarily or under state and local government orders.Governors in at least 13 states have ordered millions of people to stay home, in effect quarantined to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. No national shutdown is planned.All stock market gains since President Trump took office in January 2017 have been erased in a matter of a few weeks, while economists say the U.S., the world’s biggest economy with more than $21 trillion in goods and services produced last year, could soon slip into a recession, its first in more than a decade.The toll from the coronavirus is mounting in the U.S., with more than 41,000 confirmed cases and more than 500 deaths, with both figures markedly increasing in recent days.
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By Polityk | 03/24/2020 | Повідомлення, Політика
